Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Hey there. Just checking in from Vegas. I'm on week two with the 'rents. It's been nice and relaxing here - no real stress and the weather was good until a few days ago when "monsoon" season started and it began to get overcast and rain at least part of every day. They actually have flood advisories in effect. Here's a live shot of the weather on the Las Vegas Strip. Not the kind of weather one looks for when you are trying to work on your tan.

I have been doing so-so with eating. My main food choices have been good, or at least in moderation, and I've been drinking only a little bit and when I do its wine or light beer (I now highly recommend Corona Light).

I have also been doing my own version of water aerobics every day in the pool. I start out with "weights" which are really 2 sets of 20 oz. empty water bottles duct taped together. I do about 4 different arm exercises, 3 sets each with 15 reps a set. Then I do abs with a noodle (but not the exercise that gave me the rug burns). For abs I do 3 different exercises. This time I do 3 sets of 30 reps each. Then I do legs which is where the "aerobics" comes in. I walk back and forth across the long part of the pool (which is about 4-1/2 feet deep) doing high knees for 5 sets and then I do butt kicks for 5 sets. I figure it takes me about 30 minutes. It's only 2 WW activity points, but hey, I enjoy myself. I do it while listening to music. (I've found it's a little hard to count and hold a conversation with someone else.) My routine was cut short today when it started to thunder and lightning. C'est la vie. There's always tomorrow.

Lest you think all I do is bake in the sun and play the slots, I have been doing some part-time work for the university (editing a seriously boring paper and conducting moderately less boring interviews) and I've been trying to keep myself psyched for my job search. I've done some networking via email and I've applied for a couple jobs. As with everything, we'll see how it goes.

I must recommend an author I just discovered, who admittedly has been around for a while since her books have been made into Lifetime Movies. Jodi Picoult. She is amazing. I finished The Pactand haven't been able to get it out of my head. Now I am reading her new book Nineteen Minuteswhich seems like it is going to be just as moving.

Okay, it's time for me to start checking out all your blogs! Hope all is well with you guys.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

I'm here in Las Vegas, sitting in my damp swimsuit, typing this blog post and loving every minute of it. I did water aerobics yesterday, but didn't find plastic bottles with enough resistance and developed a nasty "rug-burn" from an exercise with a noodle. Who knew exercise could be so difficult, and dangerous!

I have bad news. I'm up 3.8 lbs. this week. I'm not worried because I'm thinking it is due to this weird thing where I am always up when I visit my parents and then I'm down when I go home. I haven't eaten or drank too badly. I definitely haven't been perfect, I was up a few points beyond my 35 flex points for the week, but I don't think it was bad enough to do this much damage. Even so, the true test will be next week when I weigh-in for the second time using my parents' scale. Guess there should be more water aerobics in my future! My apologies to Kim and my challenge teammates that I have let you down this week!

I have invited my mom to do a guest post sometime on my blog while I am visiting Las Vegas. So, keep your eyes pealed for a different "voice" on my blog sometime soon.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Hey there. Thanks for your comments on my last post. It was really helpful to hear how you all feel. Even if you didn't feel the same as me, I felt less alone after reading your comments. :)

While feeling so conflicted and then spending a weekend with my sister where she continually asked me questions about what I eat and how I feel about my weight loss, I needed to take a break from thinking about things. I still counted points and water aerobics started on Wednesday, but otherwise I tried not to concentrate on weight loss. I don't think I even visited any blogs for a week. That is not like me. I tend to be a every-other-day lurker on a lot of blogs. I don't know if I feel less conflicted, or just less stressed about having to think about what I eat all the time. I guess I really am in this for the long haul and if that means counting points for the next 50 years, I guess that's what I'm prepared to do. (WW is going to make a sh*tload of money off of me :)

So, onto the good things ... water aerobics was fun, but crowded as the first class of the session always is. I felt like I had had a good workout when I got out of the water which felt fantastic. I was talking to my sister about doing water aerobics in my parent's pool when I go out there for a visit. I said I wished they had the floatation "weights" that you do the toning exercises with. She suggested I get plastic bottles of orange juice or bleach or something, empty them and clean them out, and use those in the pool for resistance. Genius! Now I'm going to search the internet to find exercise routines to do in the water. My mom is also talking about hiking while I am out there. She now hikes three times a week since she isn't working this summer. I don't know if I can manage hiking that often, but I am looking forward to going to the gym with her. (Note to self: I need to stock up on reading material for the recumbent bike.)

Oh, to back up for a minute. I don't think I mentioned that I'm going to Vegas for two weeks to visit my parents. I found a cheap flight on Southwest and I can really conduct my job search from out there. So far I have only been having phone interviews. Just in case I'm going to bring my suit and shoes in case I need to fly somewhere for an interview. It will be very nice to be surrounded by people for a change. I can go an entire day without talking to anyone besides the lifeguard who doesn't speak English. That was great when I was working or going to school full-time, but now it is very isolating. I feel guilty for spending some of the money I've made from my part-time gig with the university on a flight to Vegas, but a wise friend of mine said that any money and time spent visiting family you love is never a bad decision.

On that note I am off to start sewing a tote bag I am making for my mom. It is the first bag I have made in about 2 years. I'm excited! If I can get their camera to work I'll take a picture of the finished product. Ciao!

Friday, July 06, 2007

There was a new woman at my WW meeting tonight. Melvin, my meeting leader, made a point of getting her to introduce herself to the group. As with most new people, she was a little embarrassed by the attention. He mentioned that she had asked at the weigh-in how much weight can people lose. He gestured to me as the example of how much weight you can lose and touted my 61.6 lbs. lost. It was weird. I mean I appreciate the support I get at my meetings immensely, but I don't know if I want to be the poster girl for the 5:30 pm meeting on Thursdays. She then asked how long it took me and he made a big point about the fact that it didn't matter how long it took me because it would sound either short or long to her and it might not be motivational. He is very into not having deadlines for your weight loss and letting it happens as it happens. Anyway, I'm starting to get embarrassed for the attention I'm getting at my meetings because of the amount of weight I've lost. I'd like to just be like everyone else at the meeting. And I'm starting to feel like I've had this weight loss a little too easy. Like it hasn't been painful enough, or I haven't gone through enough deprivation to deserve my loss. And I kinda feel guilty around my friends who are bigger than me, like I've left them behind or something. That was always a concern of mine before I ever truly started lose weight and now I feel guilty. I mean I know I've had to make difficult choices to not eat certain things every day, and I know I've exercised even when I didn't want to (not as often as I should though). I know that reaching goal doesn't all the difficult choices any easier, that maintaining is hard too. I just worry that I'm not going to be able to keep it off, to maintain the loss. Do you ever feel like you'd just like a vacation from not having to think about what you are, or are not, going to eat every day? I don't mean license to eat anything, just the ability to not have to count points or fit in enough water, or anything. Just feel like I'm going to have to do this for the rest of my life and it is starting to wear on me. I know I've just totally contradicted myself. Has anyone else had these kinds of conflicted feelings?

Sunday, July 01, 2007

Hey there. This was a fun weekend. My friend came down from New York for a short visit. She got in on Friday and I just took her to the train a few hours ago. We basically just hung out at the pool and had nice dinners. She treated me to a great tapas restaurant not far from me. It was lovely. We had chorizo with mashed potatoes, scallops in a red sauce . . . I was definitely off plan that night. I thought I would be bummed that I didn't stay on plan, but actually I think it was good for me. I didn't over eat, I wasn't stuffed, but I had a little bit of everything. It's nice to enjoy good food that's worth the extra points, even if the weekend did put me over my flex points for the week. I don't plan on having meals like that on a regular basis, but every once in a while I think is okay. If I'm up this week at my weigh-in, so be it (which I assume I will be). At least I'll know why I was up.

Still having trouble motivating myself to exercise. I think I have myself convinced to do my DVD tomorrow morning before I start my job search work and then go to the pool in the afternoon. And who knows, if the pool is quiet, maybe I'll be able to get in a few laps!

I'm a single woman in her mid-30's, trying to navigate "maintenance" in the heart of the Big Apple. I reached my weight loss goal of losing 83 lbs. in November 2007. But this year in “maintenance” has been quite a journey too. I just as proud of keeping 95% of the weight off for a year as I am at losing it in the first place.